Prairieland Conference

The Prairieland Conference is a high school conference in western central Illinois. The conference participates in athletics and activities in the Illinois High School Association. The conference comprises small public high schools with enrollments between 50 and 400 students in portions of Fulton, Knox, Mason, McDonough, Peoria, Schuyler, and Warren counties.

Prairieland Conference
ConferenceIHSA
No. of teams13
RegionWestern Central Illinois (Fulton, Knox, Mason, McDonough, Peoria, Schuyler, and Warren counties)
Locations
The Prairieland Conference within IllinoisThe Prairieland Conference within Illinois

History

Formed in 1982, the Prairieland Conference had eight original members which included; Abingdon, Bushnell-Prairie City, Cuba, Elmwood, Farmington, Knoxville, Lewistown and London Mills (Spoon River Valley). Spoon River Valley would be the first school to leave the league, joining the Inter County Athletic Conference By 1990, Elmwood began a football coop with Brimfield but remained in the league. Meanwhile, Farmington and Knoxville would leave the conference and head to the Olympic Conference being replaced with schools from Havana and Astoria, who already had established a coop with Table Grove (VIT) for football. In 1995, Peoria Heights would join the conference. Coops would continue to form as Table Grove (VIT) and Astoria would join forces in 1997 and be known as South Fulton. Also in 1997, Spoon River Valley would return to the conference from the Bi-County Conference. Rounding out the 1990s, Petersburg (PORTA) would come into the league as well as a coop with Monmouth Yorkwood and Roseville in 1999. This would give the conference 10 teams for football.

Roseville and Monmouth Warren High Schools consolidated in 2004 to become Monmouth United. This would end the coop for Roseville with Yorkwood, however, Joy Westmer took the opportunity to join forces with Yorkwood and begin their coop that same year, pulling Yorkwood out of the conference into the Lincoln Trail. Yet another coop would form in 2006 as Cuba and Spoon River Valley would join forces and become known as North Fulton. Brimfield would fully join the league in 2008, leaving the Inter County Athletic. In 2009, Petersburg (PORTA) would leave the conference for the Sangamo Conference. Prior to the 2010 school year, Beardstown and Rushville-Industry would join the league and Farmington would make their return after being gone for 20 years.[1] In 2013 Abingdon and Avon High Schools consolidated and Bushnell-Prairie City, West Prairie, North Fulton and Peoria Heights had opted to play 8-man football. Abingdon-Avon left the Prairieland and moved to the Lincoln Trail Conference in 2021.[2] Sciota West Prairie moved to the Prairieland in 2014 from the Lincoln Trail Conference. Beardstown would leave the league in 2015 for the Western Illinois Valley. In 2018, Illini West would join the Prairieland, however, it would only stay for 3 years, returning to the West Central in 2021. In that same year, Macomb would leave the West Central and join the Prairieland. In 2022, the Cuba Spoon River Valley coop would join forces with Lewistown for football.


Current membership
School Location Mascot Colors 2017-18 Enrollment IHSA Classes 2/3/4[3] IHSA Music Class[4] IHSA Football Class[5]
Astoria
High School		 Astoria, IL Rebels    
Purple, Green		 110 A/1A/1A
(VIT Coop - A/1A/1A)		 D 1A
(VIT Coop - 1A)
Brimfield
High School		 Brimfield, IL Indians    
Red, White		 225 A/1A/1A
(Elmwood Coop- A/1A/2A)		 C 1A
(Elmwood Coop- 2A)
Bushnell-Prairie City
High School		 Bushnell, IL Spartans      
Red, White, Blue		 226 A/1A/1A C 1A
(West Prairie BWP Coop-2A)
Cuba
High School		 Cuba, IL Wildcats    
Red, Black		 142 A/1A/1A
(SRV Coop- A/1A/1A)		 D 1A
(SRV Coop- 1A)
Elmwood
High School		 Elmwood, IL Trojans    
Orange, Black		 213 A/1A/1A
(Brimfield Coop - A/1A/2A)		 C 1A
(Brimfield Coop - 2A)
Farmington High School Farmington, IL Farmers    
Purple, Gold		 413 B 3A
Havana
High School		 Havana, IL Ducks    
Maroon, White		 298 A/1A/1A
 C 2A
Lewistown
High School		 Lewistown, IL Indians    
Scarlet Red, Columbia Blue		 220 A/1A/1A
 C 1A
Macomb High School Macomb, Illinois Bombers    
Orange and Black		 581
Peoria Heights
High School		 Peoria Heights, IL Patriots      
Red, White, Blue		 207 A/1A/1A
 C 1A
Spoon River Valley
High School		 London Mills, IL Vikings    
Black, Orange		 109 A/1A/1A
(Cuba Coop- A/1A/1A)		 D 1A
(Cuba Coop- 1A)
VIT
High School		 Table Grove, IL Rebels      
White, Purple, Green		 101 A/1A/1A
(Astoria Coop- A/1A/1A)		 D 1A
(Astoria Coop- 1A)
West Prairie High School Sciota, IL Cyclones    Black, Silver 162 A/1A/1A (Bushnell-PC Coop 2A) (BWP Coop-2A)

Sources:IHSA Conferences,[6] IHSA Coop Teams,[7] and IHSA Member Schools Directory[8]

Membership timeline

Full members Full members (non-football) Partial member (listed sports) Full members (8-man football) Full members (Football Coop)

Cooperative Arrangements[9]
  • Astoria+VIT=South Fulton
  • Cuba+Spoon River Valley=North Fulton
  • Havana+Illini Central for boys wrestling only
  • Brimfield and Elmwood do not coop for basketball
  • Bushnell-PC and West Prairie coop as BWP in baseball, football, softball and track. The schools do not coop in boys basketball, girls basketball, scholastic bowl or volleyball.

Competitive Success

The Prairieland Conference has won 9 state championships in IHSA sponsored athletics and activities.[10]

State Champions

Boys Baseball

  • Lewistown (1992-1993 A)
  • Peoria Heights (2017 1A)

Boys Basketball

  • Brimfield (2015 1A)

Boys Cross Country

  • Elmwood (1977-1978 A)
  • Elmwood (1983-1984 A)
  • Elmwood (1984-1985 A)
  • Elmwood (1985-1986 A)
  • Elmwood (2006-2007 A)
  • Elmwood (2008-2009 1A)
  • Elmwood (2013-2014 1A)
  • Elmwood (2016-2017 1A)
  • Elmwood (2017-2018 1A)

Boys Golf

  • Havana (1998-1999 A)

Girls Basketball

  • Brimfield (2022 1A)

Girls Volleyball

References
  1. The State Journal Register.com
  2. WMOI.com
  3. http://www.ihsa.org/school/enrolla.htm
  4. http://www.ihsa.org/school/enrollments.htm
  5. http://www.ihsa.org/activity/fb/2009-10/playoffs.htm
  6. http://www.ihsa.org/school/conf.htm
  7. http://www.ihsa.org/school/coop.htm
  8. "Schools | IHSA".
  9. IHSA list of coops
  10. "Home". ihsa.org.
  11. IHSA. "Records & History". www.ihsa.org. Retrieved 2018-01-04.
  12. IHSA Archives (2017-10-28), 2016 IHSA Girls Volleyball Class 1A Championship Game: Sciota (West Prairie) vs. Lanark (Eastland), archived from the original on 2021-12-15, retrieved 2018-01-04
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